You're viewing a single thread.
Not 100% gone yet, but gas powered yard tools are dying. Battery powered tools are just better in 99% of use cases.
Two stroke engines do seem dead though which is awesome, because mixed gas was a massive pain in the ass.
Oh god I want to gift ALL OF MY NEIGHBOURS BATTERY LEAF BLOWERS. I bought one, it's amazing, and we're about to go into autumn 🤢
Really? Some appliances are a great fit for battery but others less so.
An electric mower just doesn't feel right to me.
The mower is in that 1% unless you have a really small lot. It gets cost prohibitive if you need multiple sets of batteries to finish your lawn.
I use one on a cord. I put it on my shoulder so I don't ride over it. Never had any problems.
I remember fighting with gas weed whackers endlessly as a teen trying to do chores… having to dick with the choke for a cold start, having to pump prime them (and it being possible to over prime and lock them out), then you had to carry them around and use them with the exhaust at steak searing temperature… and if you didn’t know how to tune an idle they’d just die in your hands if you didn’t goose the throttle occasionally
This is a great one - don’t miss small gas engines even a little bit lol
Ngl I always thought starting 2-stroke engines was pretty fun. But I certainly don't miss the noise or the horrible pollution.
I had a 11kW two-stroke motorbike and while it was very important for my rural youth, I do not want it back. Fuck the constant oil refueling, fuck the fumes, fuck the noise. If I ever get a motorbike again, it'd be electric.
The fumes and noise of those little engines makes me excited that the battery versions are taking over.
Even better: tools on a wire
It's getting legit difficult to find corded tools, corded mowers are fine for the size of yard I have, but choice in those was extremely limited. Yeah battery ones exist, they're twice the price for the cheapest ones and only go up from there, I can live with an extension cord.
I haven't had much trouble after ditching google and bing. Except for headphones that take aaa batteries
Wired tools are also a pain unless you have a limited scope for movement.
I make sure to have plenty of extension cords, and sockets hanging from most ceilings (with a place to tuck them away).
I don't know hoe relevant this is, but I am in a 240 volt country. So extension cords don't really run hot or poorly even with quite a bit of distance and high loads
Love my electric chainsaw except for in winter. Battery life is horrible.
Do you keep the battery inside or on a shed? Much better for the battery to be kept indoors if that's an option.
Yeah stored in a shed. It's not an option to keep it indoors as there's no heated indoors.
I'm perfectly content with my little electric chainsaw. Basically I only ever use it if a tree dies or falls in a storm, it actually starts unlike the gas ones I've had...It wouldn't be up to the task of chopping enough wood to heat my house through the winter but for occasional use it's better than gas.
I do use a chainsaw for cutting wood to heat. (Although this winter is unpleasantly warm. Thanks, climate change...) There is definitely no way that any electric saw would be able to keep up, esp. since you can't readily drag 500y of extension cord behind you. Chainsaws could absolutely be made cleaner though. Unfortunately, I think that 2-stroke engines have a much higher power:weight ratio than 4-stroke, so we're stuck using gas mixed with oil, which pumps out smog.
I kinda wonder if it would be possible to make a 2 stroke engine that doesn't burn its own oil. Like, essentially supercharge it. Use an impeller on the flywheel to pump air into the cylinder so that the crankcase could be full of heavy oil. Though that might not work with a chainsaw since it has to be held at various angles.
Since you don't have a timing chain on a two stroke, you'd need something else to run a fuel pump.
If engine design interests you, there's a lot of neat stuff in this channel.
That throws a "this video isn't available anymore" page.
If that doesn't work, the channel on YouTuber is "Driving 4 Answers", and the title of the video is, "The Only Video You'll Ever Need to Watch to Know how 4 Stroke and 2 Stroke Engines Work and Differ".
The electric chainsaw is the only one I still don't like being battery powered. Indeed the battery life is too short for most jobs.
But the noise is also part of the experience, it just doesn't feel as Powerfull without it.
Lawnmower and snowblower have been the only things I haven't been happy with being electric. Climate change might help me not need the snowblower at all.
Just gotta have backup batteries that you keep charged.